No lineup surprises for Kansas City finale
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Aug 15, 2010 
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wow that was a quick post!
I thought Jeet would be getting the day off, good thing there is no GTLU today.
I hope A-Rod will continue his offensive heroics today, even if there is no HR. In all likelyhood he will have one HR, given how locked up he is…..
Ugh!!!! The bottom of this line-up is terrible. What is that idiot Girardi thinking of?
There!!! Now that it’s been said, there’s no reason for anyone to post this stupidity again.
oh if only that was true GB
Facing an unknown rookie will be interesting for the first few innings.
It’s quite apparent that Posada is a part time player…..Just an observation, I know we need him fresh for the playoffs….
You know that we’ll see it again as soon as the kids get out of Sunday School, Kate.
Apparent to who?
its quite apparent that Po is off b/c its a day game following a night game
Ugh!!!! The bottom of this line-up is terrible. What is that idiot Girardi thinking of?
*****************************
You guys beat me to it
For any Cano,Hughs or Swisher fans there’s a good article in the latest Sporting News about those three.
Day game after a night game and you have the luxury of Berkman being able to DH.
That doesn’t make Posada a “part-time player”.
It more about Girardi being intelligent in how he should be used in this big stretch without a day off.
SJ, any chance that your nephew plays in the Arizona Fall League, or, will they not chance reinjury?
Cervelli has 216 at bats, Posada has 270. My point was that Posada is not a full time catcher anymore. I clearly understand that he is aging,that saving him for the playoffs is most important.I also am quite familiar with the day off for a day game after a night game.
Posada’s still on target for 450 plate appearances. Not bad for a part timer catcher, huh?
Interesting scout talk last night about the Yankees at the game…..
Here is the stuff I can write without breaking confidences…..
Re: Hughes….universal praise from the scouts.
They are all impressed with how well he can throw his fastball to all quadrants of the plate.
Re: the changeup? The consensus is, that will come in time. That’s a feel pitch that takes more time in the bullpen than in games to master.
Overall, most feel Hughes is the second best starting pitcher on the team right now and is only going to get better over time.
Re: the offense and the difficulties against changeup pitchers….
The consensus is, some of the guys on the team don’t have the consistent bat speed they used to have. Therefore, they are cheating a little more on fastballs and that makes them very vulnerable to changeups. Especially when they are down in counts.
As one scout said though, “In the post-season, they aren’t going to face a lot of journeymen guys. Their approach may be better against guys who are more hard stuff dominated”.
Scouts who have seen Damon and Matsui this year don’t feel the Yankees miss either guy.
The consensus is that both guys have really fallen off this year and they wouldn’t solve any offense inconsistency issues on this team.
As one scout said to me, “Only Swisher and Cano have been consistent offensive performers since Day One. When that happens, you are going to struggle with offensive consistency”.
He then added, “If Arod goes on a tear, all bets are off. Alex getting hot makes that entire lineup more dangerous and nobody wants to see that”.
One of my closest scout friends, who has been shadowing the Yankees for the last 10 days, feels Alex is ready to go on a big tear. He said, “He just seems more comfortable at the plate to me right now. He’s putting good passes on balls he would have missed a month ago”.
Overall, the feeling is that once Pettitte gets back, if they remain healthy, the Yankees are going to be tough to catch for the division title the rest of the way.
Nothing earth shattering. Just some food for thought prior to the game today.
GB,
Still waiting to hear from the Pirates.
They haven’t yet told him their fall plans.
I imagine he will definitely be in the Instructional League again.
After that? No idea.
I hope he gets some AFL time.
I think its important for him to get AB’s in live games so his last memories of the season isn’t getting his jaw smashed by a pitch.
Better for his overall mental state, IMO.
yo doctodd…
you were the first idiot this morning. Wait till another idiot posts before writing something stupid again.
SJ44…..Do you think Cliff Lee signs with the Yanks?? I certainly hope he does…..
omg..u went ahead and did it.
Good reading material, SJ. Thanks. Rodriguez must be feeling well, hips and all, with the way he’s running the bases over the last couple of weeks.
interesting stuff SJ, especially like what is said about Phil. He appears so much more confident on the mound this year, that stint in the bullpen was so valuable in his development. He appears to be able to recover from bad innings.
what does it mean to cheat on fast balls?
someone make sure betsy sees what sj posted
I always thought that the yankees old instructional schools were a big step up for the kids trying to break in with the big club. The combined instructional leagues are great, too. stop the games and make corrections on flaws.
“The consensus is, some of the guys on the team don’t have the consistent bat speed they used to have. Therefore, they are cheating a little more on fastballs”
I made that point about A-Rod early in the game last night, and then…………..
SJ
I’m not a scout, but I posted something like that a few days ago and a particular poster (Rich in NJ) flamed me…
Just guessing, but maybe one of the players who has lost bat speed could be the leadoff hitter? And maybe one of the others is the catcher?
Thanks for the update from the scouts. I agree that ARod could go on a tear, and if that happens, the division race could be over.
SJ,
Thanks for that, good stuff. Also glad to hear your nephew is progressing and will back soon.
upstate kate August 15th, 2010 at 12:04 pm
interesting stuff SJ, especially like what is said about Phil. He appears so much more confident on the mound this year, that stint in the bullpen was so valuable in his development. He appears to be able to recover from bad innings.
what does it mean to cheat on fast balls?
———————————————————————————————————————-
Guessing fastball and starting the swing sooner. Sort of like being a guess hitter.
There is very little with Rodriguez’ bat speed. It’s more of him being under or over, not behind.
Kate,
Cheating on fastballs means, starting your bat a little quicker.
Its especially true on guys who have trouble with inside fastballs. They open up a little quicker before the pitch arrives and that makes their bat start sooner in order to catch up with the pitch.
Hitting coaches have an expression called, “letting the ball travel deeper”.
That means, letting the ball come closer to the hitting area before swinging. That keeps your weight back and you allow your hands to do the work.
When a hitter feels “slow” at the plate, and that happens to everybody at times over the course of a 162 game season, they tend to quicken or “cheat” their mechanics to get everything to start sooner.
When you do, and a pitcher throws a changeup, its pretty much impossible to hit that pitch.
We are talking about stuff that takes a fraction of a second.
That’s how fine a line it is between good contact and non-contact.
SJ44
Great information on the team and your nephew. Hope your nephew has a great time with Po-Po – and turns into a HOF catcher like him as well.
I suspect that with the results we are already seeing with Grandy, and with Jeter and Po and Alex working with KLong, consistency will start to show in time.
There is very little ***wrong*** with Rodriguez’ bat speed
Talking about bat speed, does it seem like Derek has more movement at the plate waiting for a pitch this year than in the past? I could just be me, but it seems like he is swaying his body more and then dips the bat towards the plate as the pitcher is in his wind up. Anyone else notice that?
SJ – interesting stuff.
I remember reading last off season that smart teams turn over a portion of their roster after winning. The temptation after winning a championship is to keep things intact; after all, you just won it all with these guys.
However, the risk in that is that nothing is ever constant. And if you hold on to players who overachieved, you’re left holding the bag (so to speak) when they come back to earth the next year. This risk is especially pronounced with older players.
So, the smarter teams move on, lettting go of the ones who overachieved/achieved for what might be the last time, and look to replace those parts with younger players who are hopefully on the upswing.
Cash took a lot of heat for letting go of Damon, and Matsui (the WS MVP!). But, in retrospect, the Yanks were very fortunate that those two players on the wrong side of 35 played as well as they did last year. While their replacements – Granderson and Nick Johnson – have disappointed in their own ways, the decision-making was correct. In Granderson’s case, there’s reason to hope that he can rebound.
One of the hardest things is knowing when to say goodbye, especially when there are found memories. But nothing is constant. In every sport, you have to move on. Teams that are continually successful understand that, and make it work for them.
sj44, thanks for the insight.
hughes is going to be real good. he has figured out he can win with only a 93 mph fastball so as his curve and hopefully the change get better sky is the limit.
i think hughes is throwing less cutters then earlier in the season and personally I like that.
Haven’t noticed it, but, something to watch today, Phil. Of course, today, he’ll tomahawk two homers to right and hammer two double, one down the left field line and one to the left center field gap, so, your theory will be wrong….today.
This Arsenal/Liverpool is pretty good. 10-man Liverpool lead Arsenal 1-0 in the 2nd half.
Fox Sports Soccer is so stupid! Over in England, they actually start games right on the hour mark – like 11:00 a.m. exactly.
But on FSC, they wait a few minutes before actually showing the action.
Apparently ESPN did a 2 week study on umpiring in baseball and the results on close calls was that 20% were wrong after looking at replays. 20% is a lot of missed calls.
cashman has learned to say goodbye to older players who’s skills are diminishing by watching his friend theo epstein.
cashman will never be at that level since management porbably will not allow him to be but matsui and damons time was up… the yanks need to continue to get younger. better to let a guy go a year to early then a year to late…..
Letting both of those guys go really hasn’t hurt the Yankees this year.
The Granderson trade? You make that trade 100 times out of 100 if you are the Yankees.
What you don’t do is evaluate it after a few months.
If Granderson can get his game back, particularly at the plate (he’s been solid defensively), he’s a better short term and long term option than Austin Jackson.
The mistake Cash made was Nick Johnson. He got too seduced by OBP and lost sight of Nick’s biggest weakness……the inability to stay healthy.
That’s the move I bet he would like to have back.
But, you make moves, and you go from there.
All you can do.
Joe West did his best butchering job again last night. Was especially “colorful” when Sciosca questioned him about the plays. Screaming in front of the fans after messing up that bad will not sit well with baseball.
Theo has a dilemma with Ortiz in the off-season.
Ortiz is playing well enough to have his option picked up.
If Theo declines, there is no way Ortiz is taking a paycut to return to Boston.
If Ortiz is a FA, he’s going to get offers.
If Theo picks up the option, he has almost 13 million bucks tied up in a DH.
For a team whose ownership has mandated they stay under the luxury tax, that ain’t good.
That will bear watching, IMO.
thanks GB and SJ
SJ44
Ortiz is also saying he wants more than a one year contract next time.
He might find himsef in the same situation that Damon was in.
sure thing, kate. SJ explained it more clearly and indepth than I did, but, he was just showing off for the ladies.
RiverAveBlues A-Rod’s 21.35 RBI percentage is tops among batters with 250 runners on or more. He’s quite the perfectionist.
benshpigel: Yankees watching gran torino. That’s one way to get ready for upcoming series against Detroit.
blake
The study was flawed because ESPN only looked at plays that could have gone against teams that played the Yanks and did it through rose colored 3d glasses.:)
Replay has to be expanded to everything except balls and strikes. IMO
stuart a – agreed.
I think we all can agree that Jeter and Posada are worrying us – as Yankee fans, these guys have provided us with a ton of fond memories. But, their time is coming as well. Posada, with one more year on his contract, I think realizes the end is coming. It’s great that he apparently works a lot with Cisco, and speaks so highly of Montero. Much better than the Brett Favre approach.
Jeter is heating up now, so it’s harder to tell with him; but, still time marches on.
Now, is it possible that he finds something, and click! Look at Ted Williams. That guy, at age 38, hit .388, with 38 HRs, and an OPS+ of 233. 233! So, he can hold back Father Time. But, not everyone is Ted Williams.
Only Jeter knows how he feels, and he’s not talking. But, I can’t believe that he’s blind to things. That contract negotiation with the Yanks will be very interesting. Does he go for a short, two-year deal? Or, even year to year, as Mo has suggested for himself? I would think Jeter, with his pride, has no desire to just hang on. We’ll see this November.
NYYs get Verlander vs sabathia on Tuesday night. That needs to be on pay per view as must see tv. Friday night, they get Hernandez vs Burnett.
“The mistake Cash made was Nick Johnson.”
Even that move was understandable at the time because there were not many options open to him. Matsui had the Angel’s offer (and wanted to play OF), Boras was trying his best to pick his pockets, and Cash was having none of it. He had to know signing NJ was a roll of the dice, but on a 1 year deal I guess he felt it was an acceptable risk.
i have no issues with jorge sitting today. i believe javier goes tommorrow, does that mean jorge sits tommorrow
johnson was a risk, but he should sign vlad.
but nobody thought vlad could produce like this.
sometimes you take a risk, you get burned.
matsui wanted outfield time and damon got greedy.
johnson wasn’t cashman first choice
According to Cafardo, Martinez may be looking at a 4 year, $60 mil contract extention. If that’s the case, Henry and Epstein will have matching strokes.
them martinez can say bye to bos
SJ
Would you say Jeter hits to right because he stays late on the ball, sees it to the last second?
Doing this , he is late on fastballs and goes to right more naturally then a slap hitter, say like Boggs used to do or even Mattingly to some extent, not that they were slap hitters but hitters that could hit to all fields.
GB7
I think that the RS are going to have trouble retooling.
In 04 & 07 they had enough cost controled young players to allow them to pay some of the better players.
Now that they don’t have many ML ready players it will be hard to retool and stay under the luxery tax.
mick
They say that Jeter lets the ball travel deep into the zone, thus resulting in alot of hits to RF. But if he is cheating because he is losing bat speed, would it not then maybe expain why it seems like he is hitting alot of weak grounders to short, if he cheats and guesses wrong?
MaineYankee August 15th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
GB7
I think that the RS are going to have trouble retooling.
In 04 & 07 they had enough cost controled young players to allow them to pay some of the better players.
Now that they don’t have many ML ready players it will be hard to retool and stay under the luxery tax.
———————————————————————————————————————-
I’m not so sure about that. They have quite a few tools on that team. Youkilis, Pedroia and head cheerleaders, Schilling and Gammons.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but going rate for DHs last off season was about 6M, give or take. That’s half of what Ortiz’ option for next year is. It would take a sea change for the Red Sox to pick that up. It would go against everything they’ve been talking about in terms of value, etc.
But, Ortiz has shown he’s far from washed up. If they don’t pick that up, I don’t foresee him coming back there for a discount. Not when others will be waiting for him.
Not to perseverate on the Red Sox, but with all their FA issues this off season, their budget is going to take a hit. My heart bleeds.
LOL @ Pepe Reina! Own Goal!
Jeter doesn’t seem to be being fooled by the changeup more tha he just gets overpowered at times.
Ortiz in Detroit, Anaheim or Chicago?
He naturally waits on pitches, seldom pulling the ball, so if he is cheating, yes that could explain him getting out in front and grounding to SS.
“I think we all can agree that Jeter and Posada are worrying us – as Yankee fans, these guys have provided us with a ton of fond memories.”
Neither is worrying me, for the same and for different reasons.
Yes, the decline is coming, it’s inevitable. But this fan has already adjusted to the factor, and am comfortable that:
1.) Yankees seems to be developing some various appealing options behind Posada;
2.) Jeter RIGHT NOW, is still among the games most productive shortshops.
THAT SAID, I caution fans of committing to the logical fallacy of assuming Jeter’s RELATIVE (to himself) struggles are primarily due to age.
Posada has has larger, multi-year sample size to base this conclusion. The “decline” can be documented empirically.
I perfectly understand the natura; assumption and of course it a fair thing to speculate about, but I wouldn’t necessarily entirely discount Jeter having a better year next year than he’s (so far) had this year. He’s showing some late life as we speak.
I think people waiting all this to say “well, there IT IS, we knew it was coming” MIGHT be in for a surprise the next year or two.
“I’m not a scout, but I posted something like that a few days ago and a particular poster (Rich in NJ) flamed me…”
Flamed?
I made a joke using your post as a jumping off point. OK, maybe it was a lame joke, but I didn’t flame you.
“benshpigel: Yankees watching gran torino”
I loved Gran Torino.
GB7
You forgot the two biggest tools.
Beckett and Papelbon.
The problem I have with “Jeter is cheating” argument is he’s shown the same patterns almost since Day 1 of the season, coming off a VERY good year last year.
This guy has been playing baseball since he was 9, does anyone think Jeter discovered, bought into the conclusion, and than began adjusting for a lack of batspeed in March?
One would think that would be a slow process of discovery and acceptance for a player of his maturity and ability.
I can’t say it isn’t possible, but just strikes me a a very neat and tidy explanation.
Remember, Ortiz has been written off TWICE for lack of batspeed, but some very astute people here, this April-May and April-May of 2009 TOO.
stuckey – oh, you absolutely bring up good points. And, as I referenced in an earlier post (referring to Ted Williams stellar season at age 38), it’s far from impossible for Jeter to have a really good year next season, and even beyond. I agree, he’s still the best all around starting SS in the league.
Having said that, the day will come. The catch is knowing when it’s here, and dealing with that reality. Not an impossible situation, but something to be intelligently and realistically dealt with.
As far as Jeter and Posada’s decline goes, I think Derek can make adjustments that will allow him to get back to close to his career production. Jorge is just beat up. I look at the catcher position in baseball as the same as a center in football. You just get beat on every play and nothing can be done to avoid it, while staying productive. Has to catch up sometime.
MaineYankee August 15th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
GB7
You forgot the two biggest tools.
Beckett and Papelbon.
———————————————————————————————————————-
They are broken tools right now.
Glad they weren’t watching “For the Love of the Game”
mick,
Jeter’s natural stroke is an inside out approach.
He’s a guy that doesn’t like to mess with what has been successful for him.
He has always been a guy that has been a “hands hitter”.
By that I mean, he lets the ball travel very, very deep before pulling the trigger.
The difference between him and pull hitters though is, when Jeter is right, he wears out right-right center.
Occasionally, he will turn on the inside pitch.
Overall though, his natural stroke is to center-right center.
I think that this string of blown saves and too close calls are starting to wear on Papalbon. Knowing that Boston’s looking for a way to move him out of town can’t help matters.
Ortiz is the classic case of a guy who is cheating on his swing bigtime.
Look at how he swings now. Its completely different from the way he swung the bat from 2004-2008.
Its why he has so much trouble with LH pitching now.
When he was “Big Papi”, he crushed lefties as much as righties.
Now? Lefties own him because he opens up so quickly, he pretty much gives away the outer half of the plate and is very vulnerable to curveballs and sliders from LHP.
Phil Hughes now sitting at 134.2 innings pitched. Hopefully the team can get some distance in the AL East race and use Ivan Nova for a start or 2 in September to keep Phil’s innings count down.
Phil in Columbus August 15th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Glad they weren’t watching “For the Love of the Game”
*****************************
I read somebody’s interview with Swish once where I’m pretty sure he said For Love of the Game is his favorite movie. LOL
Erin
There’s a good article in the Sporting News about Cano,Hughes and Swisher.
New Post w/pregame notes
very impressed with Tex’s approach lately, actually taking outside pitch the other way. He’s done that at least twice. My only frustration is the perception that many Yanks look to go yard too often, even on two strikes. “Up the middle” and “a two strike approach” seems to be lacking for some of the big guys. Ironically, not for A-rod, who has had a pretty good approach all season. When the Yanks were hitting around 280 as a team their HR production was much lower than it is now. Is it cyclical? or stretches during a long season where they change their approach? That was a rap on them for a few years in the playoffs, they obviously overcame it last year.
I was a little dissapointed with Jorge’s HR last night, I thought with his average close to .250, his defensive problems and his string of injuries he might have thought it time to use a new batting helmet! (sorry, I’m a OCD wannabe.)